Live Again
by PearlyJammer
Summary: The prequel to Checkpoint. Before she was Rogue she was Marie. Before she was Marie she was someone else. A tale of how Rogeu came into being.


Title:  Leaving Hope  1/1 

Author:  Autumn 

Series: Live Again     

Email: autumnleaves@autumnpenguins.com 

Disclaimer:  I do not own the traditional X-Characters; they are the property of Fox and Marvel no matter how many angry letters I write, opposing that fact.     

Hillary Meangle is my own creation.  

The song lyrics belong to Better than Ezra 

Archive: DDFH, API  

Rating:  R for chapter one, higher rating later on.  

Pairing:  R/C mentioned in part one.  R/L for the majority of the story. 

Cat: Drama/Angst Very dark, specks of light shine through, but it is mainly dark. 

Summary: Before she was Rogue, she was Marie.  Before she was Marie, she was someone else.  A tale of how Rogue came into being.         

A/:N:  

This prequel takes place 2 years before 'Checkpoint'  

Marie is 17

AU events and from X1 and X2  

This plot was hatched about a year ago, but I never had a way to make it come to life in the way I thought it deserved.  So, I sat on it and at the end of 'Checkpoint' I realized that it as time for this story to be told.  

The song was hatched from the Better than Ezra song 'Desperately Wanting' 

If you're confused at the beginning, please bear with me.  I promise that everything will be explained. 

******************  

Past the road to your house   
That you never called home   
Where they turned out the lights 

Though they say you'll never know   
  


"She loaded up?"  

"Yeah."  

"What are you going to tell everybody Frank?"  

Francis D'Ancanto scratched his head.  "She got pregnant, and ran off with some tomcat."      

"It's not an out and out lie. I am what some folks would call a tomcat." The older man grinned.  

"You're doing the right thing here Mr. D'Ancanto.  The Lord gave up His own flesh and blood too.  Take comfort in that."  

Francis nodded slowly. "You better get going, it's a long ride."  

"Here's the check for the truck.  You'll be hearing from us real soon.  We'll send her back to you when she's healed."     

The stranger tipped his hat and strode to the driver's side of the truck.  He turned the ignition and drove down the dusty, Mississippi road.  

*************  

The cold, hard metal against her cheek was the first thing the girl noticed.  Her pounding head cleared just enough to realize that she was in the back of her parent's pick-up truck.  The rope that bound her wrists was too tight for any hope of freeing herself from it, but the tape over her mouth had grown loose by the moisture of her breath.  She licked at the tape, disgusted by the taste but determined to rid herself of the gag.  Hope wasn't certain how she'd gotten into the back of the truck, but knew enough to realize that she'd been drugged, so whatever reason she was in here for, it couldn't be something that led to kisses and bunnies.  

The kiss.  Oh God.  She'd killed him. The truth slammed into her, as the truck she was in lurched so violently she skidded into the fall wall of the truck, her shoulder giving an audible crack as it met the hard surface.  The physical pain that Hope felt had nothing on the mental anguish she was experiencing.  Cody had been innocent, his face, his hands, his lips.  Everything about that kiss had been right.                     

It wasn't her first kiss, but it was her first good kiss.  There had been two boys before him who just simply drooled all over her lips.  Cody fit with her, but now he was dead, and he would be in the ground soon.  Hope cried silently, she knew she deserved whatever she was gonna get.        

*****************

I remember running through the wet grass   
Falling a step behind   
Both of us never tiring  

Desperately Wanting   
  


            It was night when the truck rolled into the compound.  Harry jumped out of the truck, and walked around to press the 'delivery entrance.'  A group of three people emerged from the sterile looking building.  Two men and a woman who walked ahead of the others with a clipboard in hand, clearly in charge.        

            "Rise and shine girly girl, Harry said, as he pulled Hope out of the pick-up."  

            "So, you're the little girl with the skin problem."  The woman spoke, her pale eyes sizing Hope up. 

            Hope didn't answer, tears running down her face.  

            "Answer when you're spoken too bitch!" One of the woman's flunkeys shouted harshly as he backhanded Hope across the face.  

            She raised her head, a defiant look in her eye, and spit at her captors.  The two men pounced on her at once; they wore gloves, and didn't worry about coming into contact with her skin.  Hope's arms were still bound behind her back, so she had no chance whatsoever of fighting back.  

"Ease up boys.  Don't knock her unconscious until after we've cleaned her up a little, and put her through the registry." The woman spoke again.  

"Bring her inside, she's the only arrival tonight so let's get this over with and we can all turn in early tonight."    

            Hope was too tired to resist as the men strapped her to a gurney, and rolled her away from the parking lot, to the building.  She was wheeled into what appeared to be a doctor's office.  It had that al-too-clean smell too it, and bore absolutely no distinguishing artwork that told her where she was, or even why she was here.  

            "Release her."  

            The orderlies roughly releasing her from the gurney and untied her arms, and Hope was finally allowed to stretch her aching arms.  "Who are you?"  

            "Dr. Hillary Meangle.  I ask the questions around here."  

            "Take your clothes off, and clean yourself up.  You smell like piss, filthy animal. Put the gown on afterwards. You have two minutes."  Dr. Meangle said, pointing towards a shower stall in the corner of the room that Hope hadn't seen before.  

            A sharp whistle blew, when Hope was still under the water.  Meangle struck her harshly with a horse crop, as Hope screamed and attempted to escape.  "Time's up."  

            Hope scrambled into the gown and stood before the doctor.  "What's your birthday?"

"July 24th, 1982.   

"What's your full name?" 

"Hope Marie D'ancanto."  

"Hope? I don't think so. Such a name, for such a creature would be unfitting. Murderers are not trustworthy.  They don't deserve to be have optimistic faith for years to come.  From here on out, you are Marie."  

  
 

*****************  

According to ivillage.com  

Hope means:  Trust, optimistic faith in things to come 

Marie means:  The perfect one, bitter with sorrow 


End file.
